{"id":68693,"date":"2019-11-04T17:18:29","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T16:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/francisco-reynes-energy-poverty-is-a-social-problem-that-cannot-be-ignored-and-naturgy-will-continue-to-implement-specific-measures-that-help-to-reduce-it\/"},"modified":"2019-11-04T17:18:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T16:18:29","slug":"francisco-reynes-energy-poverty-is-a-social-problem-that-cannot-be-ignored-and-naturgy-will-continue-to-implement-specific-measures-that-help-to-reduce-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/francisco-reynes-energy-poverty-is-a-social-problem-that-cannot-be-ignored-and-naturgy-will-continue-to-implement-specific-measures-that-help-to-reduce-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Francisco Reyn\u00e9s: \u201cEnergy poverty is a social problem that cannot be ignored and Naturgy will continue to implement specific measures that help to reduce it\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

The Chairman & CEO of Naturgy, Francisco Reyn\u00e9s<\/strong>, said today that the energy poverty problem is a social problem that cannot be ignored because it \u201chas an impact on the conditions for decent human lives\u201d. Earlier today, Francisco Reyn\u00e9s closed the event entitled \u2018Policies and Measures against Energy Poverty\u2019 organised by the Naturgy Foundation, at which a study entitled \u2018Energy Poverty in Spain: An income-based approach\u2019 was presented. This study was conducted by the Chair of Energy Sustainability at IEB-University of Barcelona.<\/p>\n

Francisco Reyn\u00e9s stressed that, according to the study, two-thirds of vulnerable households in Spain live in properties that are more than 25 years old, meaning that \u201cthe relationship between property age and vulnerability is relevant\u201d, he said. In this regard, he pointed out that one of the main projects being run by the Naturgy Foundation focuses on this problem. \u201cThanks to the Energy-related Renovations Fund that our foundation has set up, some 1,000 properties lived in by vulnerable families have already been renovated and we are going to continue our efforts in this area\u201d, he explained.<\/p>\n

The Chairman & CEO of Naturgy highlighted the foundation\u2019s commitment to energy poverty and its contribution in this area. Besides the efforts made on energy-related renovations, the company chairman explained that 18,000 families have attended the Energy School and 500 company employees take part in the Naturgy Foundation Volunteering Programme, through which more than 3,000 families have been helped.<\/p>\n

In turn, Jos\u00e9 Dom\u00ednguez Abascal, State Secretary for Energy<\/strong> from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, expressed gratitude for \u201cthe Naturgy Foundation\u2019s efforts\u201d to develop programmes capable of helping to ease energy poverty and stressed that the Government of Spain \u201cenjoys its support and will continue to enjoy that support\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Dom\u00ednguez Abascal described energy poverty as \u201ca real problem that we have to tackle because there is still a significant number of people in this situation\u201d. Among the various profiles, he underlined \u201csingle-parent families, people who live alone and the sick who depend on electrical equipment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Presentation of study on energy poverty by University of Barcelona<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Mar\u00eda Teresa Costa-Campi<\/strong>, from the University of Barcelona, presented the study entitled \u2018Energy Poverty in Spain: An income-based approach\u2019<\/strong>. This study was conducted by the Chair of Energy Sustainability at the IEB-University of Barcelona<\/strong> and published by the Naturgy Foundation.<\/p>\n

Mar\u00eda Teresa Costa-Campi said that \u201cenergy poverty is a phenomenon tied to the disposable income available to households\u201d, adding that \u201cthe level of education, unemployment and female gender of the main breadwinner in single-parent families or people living alone are decisive factors in energy poverty\u201d. She went on to add that \u201csignificant differences are seen between autonomous regions of Spain, due to the different social policies in place in each one\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mar\u00eda Teresa Costa-Campi said that \u201cenergy poverty should be tackled through a general social protection system\u201d and that \u201cin-depth reflection is needed on how to tackle the problem through cross-cutting public policies capable of acting on the main decisive factors tied to household incomes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The professor also called for \u201cclose collaboration between all the stakeholders involved, especially between companies in the sector and public authorities\u201d, given that measures to improve household energy efficiency are also needed.<\/p>\n

The data revealed by the study include the fact that 22.1% of Spanish households in a situation of energy poverty include members who are unemployed, compared with 7.1% of households where this is not the case. The likelihood of a household being in a situation of energy poverty increases by 9.3% when the main breadwinner is unemployed. According to the research, an average 8.3% of Spanish households were in a situation of energy poverty between 2011 and 2017.<\/p>\n

An international outlook on energy poverty <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Deputy Head of the Retail Markets Unit at the Directorate-General for Energy of the European Commission, Tadhg O\u2019Briain<\/strong>, congratulated Spain on the measures being developed in the field of energy poverty\u201d. Tadhg O\u2019Brian explained that \u201cthe European Commission wishes to help Member States share best practices and tie their energy efficiency measures and building renovation strategies to measures against energy poverty\u201d. To that end, he announced that \u201ca series of guidelines on energy poverty\u201d will be published next year \u201cin line with the Clean Energy Package\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shonali Pachauri, Deputy Head of the Transition to New Technologies (TNT) Programme at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA),<\/strong> believes that assessing the energy poverty situation and understanding which options exist for resolving it within different contexts is absolutely essential. \u201cWe must have a firm and ongoing commitment from governments to implementing social support policies and policies capable of regulating the price of energy, and we need to invest in renovations\u201d, she said. Shonali Pachauri believes there is a need to find more suitable and innovative business models that think about the end user.<\/p>\n

Participation by the third sector in tackling energy poverty<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The event was also attended by representatives from the third sector. Antoni Bruel, General Coordinator of the Spanish Red Cross<\/strong>, explained the project entitled \u2018Committed to People and the Environment\u2019 that includes work with vulnerable groups to implement energy efficiency measures and help reduce the impact of energy poverty.<\/p>\n

In turn Natalia Peiro, General Secretary of C\u00e1ritas Espa\u00f1ola<\/strong>, said that \u201cthere is a responsibility that requires public authorities to ensure the right to an energy supply is guaranteed through preventive and palliative regulation and public policies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Xavier Mauri, Managing Director of the H\u00e0bitat3 Foundation,<\/strong> underlined his commitment to monitoring vulnerable households, \u201cwhich could be key to seeing the impacts achieved by any measures put in place\u201d. This is one of the challenges that he highlighted, together with reducing the burden of supply costs, investment in measures by the public authorities and explaining rights to people in a situation of energy poverty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the event, a study by the Chair of Energy Sustainability at Barcelona Institute of Economics-University of Barcelona was presented, which analyses energy poverty from the perspective of available income for vulnerable groups and concludes that one out of five Spanish households in this situation has one or more members who are unemployed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1454,"featured_media":68599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[700,729],"tags":[1013,711],"content-type":[],"acf":[],"post_class":["post-68693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy-and-the-environment","category-social-action","tag-energy-vulnerability","tag-seminars-en","wordpress-sticky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68693"},{"taxonomy":"content-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fundacionnaturgy.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-type?post=68693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}